Monthly Archives: February 2009

This sort of thing matters to a lot of people, so here we go. According to Matt Casamassina’s blog, Platinum’s MadWorld runs at 480i. Not 480p.

Buy it anyway. It looks awesome. As Matt says:

You must still buy this game, but this omission raises an interesting point. Usually, lack of 480p support can be credited to developer laziness. No way such a claim can be leveled at Platinum Games or MadWorld. This is a AAA developer which constantly pushes the artistic limits and MadWorld is the latest proof of that. I’m wondering, then, if the studio simply wasn’t aware that 480p is “kind of a big deal” for a chunk of Wii owners.

What’s the difference between an “i” and a “p,” anyway? It’s out next month.

Remedy’s dropped two more text passages from Alan Wake, a move likely to add more weight to gossip of a GDC reveal.

A first snippet was released on Friday night.

Alan’s an author. So he writes. This is what he writes. Poor old Alan.

Rusty’s screams were still ringing in my ears. The tree stump the grove got its name from looked like a severed leg of a monsterous bird. I prayed that the gun would make a difference. Every time I moved the flashlight, I was afraid of the horrors it might reveal. Suddenly a ragged arrow gloved in the light. I followed it.

- Alan Wake

Here’s the second one.

I taped a note on the door (I had forgotten so many things already).
and made its way inside, through a nostril or an ear. I barricaded the door of the cabin. I kept the lights on at all times. I was convinced that I would wake up changed, darkness having seeped in through the cracks in the floor, crawled up to my bed. I became increasingly afraid to go to sleep.

-Alan Wake

Got that? Goodo. Show it, please. Thanks, IGN.

Capcom was wise to expect success from Street Fighter IV, with the game taking debuting at number one in the UK.

The brawler’s ended Wii Fit’s five-week reign at the top of the league. Nice initial showing for Dawn of War II there, the sequel coming in at number three.

Last week’s chart here. Hit this for the full thing.

Nippon Ichi’s shown off new DS RPG, Witch’s Tale.

The game sees players take control of an apprentice witch named Ridel. A student at a magic school, Ridel hopes to become the most famous witch in all the world.

It’s developed by HitMaker. Japan gets it on March 28, and there’s no date for western release as yet.

More on IGN.

Live in Britain? Want to play Killzone 2 without having to pay for it? You may be in luck.

Sony’s got a little more specific on details for its Killzone 2 training centres, so if you’re anywhere near one of these you’ll be able to try before you buy.

• Saturday, February 28 – Jubilee Square, Brighton
• Saturday, March 7 – The Custard Factory, North Yard, Birmingham
• Sunday, March 8 – Great Northern Square, Manchester

We’ll pop along to the Brighton one and annoy the nice people. Thanks, ThreeSpeech.

Three Speech has posted up the second part of the Killzone 2 making of documentary, as you can see here.

You’d have to be mad or blind to think this is anything other than one of the best-looking console games ever made.

It’s out on February 27.

A jobs listing on the Climax site has revealed that Climax is working on “an unannounced title for Codemasters as well as our stunning and refreshing take on the horror genre and our original ground breaking next-gen game for the PS3 and the Xbox 360.”

Looking at the site’s front page shows that two games – one for Wii and PSP and one for 360 and PS3 – are both in the works for Konami.

No one seems to know what the secret games are. They wouldn’t be a secret otherwise, would they?

We’re checking now. Thanks, GAF and Destructoid.

Microsoft’s decision to close Flight Simulator developer Aces has created an opening for those that create add-ons for the game, Just Flight has said.

“There has always been a degree of uncertainty about when the next version would be released, and whether existing products out would be compatible,” said Just Flight boss Dermot Stapleton.

“It seems that the latest version Flight Simulator X, will be the sim of choice for the next few years and so we can use this period of stability to develop more complex products, safe in the knowledge that the platform won’t be undergoing any kind of radical change.”

Thanks, MCV.

Funcom CFO Olav Sandnes has resigned after Funcom’s Q4 results showed a $23.3 million loss.

A stumbling Age of Conan was blamed for the decline. E24′s estimated today that subs for the MMO are now as low as 100,000.

“Funcom is a company with a substantial potential based on a unique combination of skill sets in a fast growing global market. I wish Trond Aas and the rest of the organisation all the best in realising the full potential of the company,” said Sandnes.

While Funcom’s cash position remains solid at $39.4 million, the company reported a full-year net loss of $33.8 million.

Thanks, GI.

Sony’s confirmed it’s to can PSP’s Go!Messenger service.

“The Go!Messenger service will be withdrawn by BT and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEE) from 31 March 2009,” said a SCEE staffer in a post on the EU boards.

Why? Not many people used it.

“Although it proved a popular concept, achieving a significant number of registrations, it didn’t gain the number of regular users that BT and SCEE were aiming for,” said the announcement.

More through there.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena will release on April 7 in North America and April 24 in Europe, Atari’s just confirmed.

The disc features the new, full-length Assault on Dark Athena campaign, an HD remake of Escape from Butcher Bay and multiplayer options.

It looks great, to be blunt. PC, 360 and PS3 all get a version.

Press release after the break.

More »

Xbox Europe boss Chris Lewis has told GI that second-hand games are just something the industry has to live with.

“I’m a fan of the ecosystem overall,” he said.

“I can see the positive in it, because I can see that what you then get is more and more people touching, playing, experiencing a game that they may not otherwise have access to.

“I think you’ve got to try and extract some positive from it, and that’s undoubtedly a good factor – a positive swirl of ecosystem that results.

“Clearly it’s a reality, and certain retailers are very focused and spend a lot of time on it. It’s good business for them.”

The exec’s comments come after Gamestop boss J Paul Raines said at DICE last week that used game sales don’t harm full-price products.

Gamersyde’s posted up the first trailer and grabs of Lost Planet 2.

The game was announced this morning.

It looks awesome. Co-op, jungles, all sorts. Look and see.

Thanks, Blerk.

EG’s posted the first proper trailer for Dante’s Inferno.

It’s all CG, but there’s some lovely-looking bosses in there, as well as the promised scythe.

No date on this yet. Thanks, Blerk.

Update: The movie and some shots are online now.

Capcom just announced Lost Planet 2.

The reveal was delivered by way of an Xbox Live movie download, as promised. The file’s 436Mb in size.

Gameplay footage is included in the video, according to this GameZine report, showing climate changes over the first title, including melting snow and jungles.

Co-op was essentially confirmed: “Players wished they had been able to take on the Akrid enemies in a co-op mode,” producer Jun Takeuchi – yep, the same guy working on RE5 – said in the movie.

“You should be able to see our response to those requests in the trailer you just saw.”

More soon. Thanks Blerk.

StarCraft II will be playable at German tech show CeBit, according to StarCraftWire.

The news comes from an Intel press release. The full thing’s through the link.

The Hanover expo takes place from March 3-8.

There’s still no date on StarCraft II, although a beta is promised in the “coming months.”

Remedy has told VG247 it’s not saying whether or not Alan Wake will appear at GDC next month, after weekend chatter pegged the horror for a San Franciscan reveal.

“We unfortunately aren’t communicating whether or not we’ll have GDC presence at this point of time,” a Remedy rep told VG247 this morning.

Activity surrounding the project does appear to be increasing, however, with Remedy showing some plot text from the game on its forums on Friday night.

Wake – a first-party 360 effort – has been tight under wraps since first announced in 2005.

Brit mag Xbox World 360′s confirmed that its first play through of Resident Evil 5 lasted less than eight hours.

“As previously stated our first completion time, minus cut-scenes, was seven hours, thirty-six minutes and one second,” the mag said on its blog.

“For reference purposes, the total length of all the game’s cut-scenes clocks in at 80 minutes.

“This time was achieved in single player and on the normal difficulty. This was not a speed-run, nor were we pressured for time, and was not, as suggested, merely the time to complete the first three chapters of preview code.”

There’s more through the link. Resident Evil 5 ships on March 13.

The French government has awarded 45 in-development games tax breaks, cuts likely to generate up to €40 million (£35 million) for local developers.

Around 120 projects were presented for evaluation, but those selected met the “criteria of quality, originality” and contributed to “cultural diversity” in order to receive the cash boost.

“Right from the start, the DG Competition wanted to impose a very strict cultural frame for games to be eligible to any incentive,” said Guillaume de Fondaumière, president of French trade body SNJV.

“After almost two years of argumentation, we had obtained a number of concessions which I hoped would enable a significant number of projects to benefit from this tax credit.”

More on GI.

Xbox Europe boss Chris Lewis has told GI that gamers have nothing to fear from Windows 7.

“Windows 7 will be great for games, undoubtedly,” he said.

“It’s all good news – it’s even more robust, it’s quicker relatively, and the early testing cycles are proving very promising overall.

“I think it’ll be nothing but good news for PC gamers, but we’ll have more to say on that later on this year.”

Lewis also reaffirmed Microsoft’s commitment to PC gaming overall, claiming that the Games For Windows campaign would be an ongoing investment.

The third part of the site’s Lewis interview’s here.